Girl Sent HOME with an Injury That Could Have KILLED Her

Eight-year-old Ava Amato was quad bike riding in Cervantes, Western Australia, last month when she came off.

Ava was seriously injured in the crash but after being transferred to hospital in an Ambulance wearing a neck brace, she was sent home with just Panadol and Nurofen.

'They pretty much said they couldn't find anything in the x-ray that would alarm them,' Mrs Amato told 7 News.

Two days later a consultant radiologist called the family to return back to hospital urgently.

The eight-year-old was then informed that she had four fractured vertebrae and a severed ligament in her neck which, If she had any more trauma to her neck she could have potentially ended up in a wheelchair according to the girls mother.

The hospital has apologised for 'the distress this has caused', but said 'this was a complex and unusual case'.

Ava was discharged from Princess Margaret Hospital on Wednesday following spinal surgery and is now recovering.

A Joondalup Health Campus spokeswoman said: 'The hospital apologises again for the distress this has caused the family. We invited them to meet with the hospital's Director of Medical Services, although this offer was declined.

'This was a complex and unusual case, with the injury particularly hard to detect in the initial x-ray, which was assessed by multiple emergency doctors, including the most senior on duty.

'As a result of this case, the hospital is reviewing its procedures around spinal injury imaging.'